My Birth Story and How I Prepared
Our first day home from the hospital. 2/25/20 On February 23, 2020, Charles and I became parents when we welcomed our healthy son, Aylan Chabetaye Gelder Dabah, into the world! I learned that in Judaism, as in many eastern traditions, there is a sacred 40-day period following birth. (It’s beautiful that this number of days mirrors the number of weeks of pregnancy.) I am now at the end of this time and wanted to mark it by sharing publicly my birth story and how I prepared for it. I don’t think we talk enough about birth in our society, and trends in our current medical system has made natural, unmedicated childbirth so much more rare. Currently in the US, ~75% of women have an epidural. 35% of women who use anesthesia end up with a c-section versus a 3% c-section rate for women who don’t have any intervention. Natural childbirth was the most profound singular experience of my life. TL;DR version: I invested a lot of time, energy and financial resources into preparing myself phy...